Of the ten Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) with the highest average incomes from wage and salaries across Australia, seven were located in metropolitan New South Wales (NSW), one was located in metropolitan Victoria (Vic) and two were located in metropolitan Western Australia (WA).

Wage and salary earners residing in Mosman (A), Woollahra (A) and Hunter's Hill (A) in New South Wales had the highest average wage and salary income in Australia at $88,658, $70,765 and $68,818 respectively.

Wage and salary earners residing in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) had the highest average wage and salary income of all the states and territories at $44,664, followed by wage and salary earners in New South Wales ($41,407) and the Northern Territory (NT) ($40,027). Australia wide, the average wage and salary income of wage and salary earners was $38,820.

In Queensland (Qld), South Australia (SA) and the Northern Territory, SLAs with a mining focus had the highest average wage and salary incomes. Broadsound (S), Belyando (S) and Peak Downs (S) had the highest average wage and salary incomes in Queensland while Roxby Downs (M) had the highest average wage and salary income for South Australia. In the Northern Territory wage and salary earners in Groote Eylandt, Nhulunbuy, and Jabiru (T) had the highest average incomes from wages and salaries.

Wage and salary earners in Ashburton (S), located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, also with a mining focus, had the fourth highest average wage and salary income in Western Australia. Similar was West Coast (M) in Tasmania (Tas) which was amongst the five Tasmanian SLAs with the highest average wage and salary incomes.

Across Australia there were four SLAs where more than half of the wage and salary earners had a wage and salary income of $52,000 or more. These SLAs were Roxby Downs (M) in South Australia, Ashburton (S) in Western Australia, Broadsound (S) in Queensland and Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory.

The high ranking SLAs with a mining focus had higher than average proportions of wage and salary earners in the 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 years age groups. This, along with generally lower than average proportions of wage and salary earners in the 55 years and over age group, points to the younger age profile of these areas.

The SLAs with a mining focus also had a higher than average proportion of male wage and salary earners and a higher than average proportion of wage and salary earners working in the tradespersons and related workers and intermediate production and transport workers occupations. In contrast, the high ranking metropolitan SLAs had higher than average proportions of wage and salary earners in the managers, administrators and professionals occupations.

Wage and salary earners in the high ranking metropolitan SLAs received more income from sources other than wages and salaries compared with the average for their respective state or territory. This was in direct contrast to the high ranking SLAs with a mining focus where less income was received from sources other than wages and salaries compared to the state or territory average.

TOP FIVE STATISTICAL LOCAL AREAS WITH THE HIGHEST AVERAGE WAGE AND SALARY INCOME FOR EACH STATE AND TERRITORY, 2003-04